[music] [music] Heat. Heat. Never Is the video playing or >> Okay, no video. We're done. Okay, wonderful. Well, good evening and welcome to the March 12th, 2026 meeting of the Minnotonka Economic Development Advisory Commission. The schedule and tenative agendas can be obtained by calling the Community Development Department or by checking the city website at minnotonkamn.gov. Copies of tonight's agenda and staff reports are on the podium outside of these chambers. This meeting is televised and webstreamed on the city's website. Listening devices are available upon request. If you wish to use a device, please see city staff located outside the council chambers in the audiovisisual control room. From a broader standpoint, the EDAC attempts to find a balance between individual rights and community responsibilities as they make their recommendations. Individual rights are easy to understand. Community responsibilities are more subtle. But the idea is that we as community members of the community agree to limit our individual rights for the common good of the group. The community development department, the economic development advisory commission, and the city council are responsible for managing this sometimes difficult balancing act. We ask that you keep this broader perspective in mind as we review tonight's subject matter. Before we begin, please make sure your cell phones are turned off. The items on tonight's agenda include the 2025 community development annual report and economic development and housing updates. We'll move into roll call. >> Hey, [clears throat] >> uh Connors here. >> Folk excused today. Um PE Peebles is excused. Um Jin >> here. Anderson >> here >> and Dugginki Sabula >> here. Okay. With that, we'll move into approval of the EDAC minutes. Do I see a motion for approval of the December 11th, 2025 minutes? >> So moved. >> So move. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Present. All in favor of approving the December 11th, 2025 minutes, say I. >> I. I. >> I. >> And that passes. Thank you. We'll move on to the agenda today. Okay. All right. I'm here to do the community development report and so you'll just uh if we tell you too many stats at once, just slow us down. We can do that. And uh hopefully you'll find this uh an enjoyable reflection as uh the last year has concluded. And we do this every year for those who are newer to the commission. It's a report uh that community development staff entirely. So you see just a subset of the community development staff, but we're actually a little bit larger than um than you realize maybe. So what we're going to move into here is uh the department information. And so basically showing you that there are about 30 full-time and part-time employees that serve the community development department. And we do have employees that serve what I call part-time on call. Uh meaning there are people that kind of help us out when we're in need. Uh we've got inspectors that uh flex in and flex out as we have issues of maybe we've got lots of uh roof permits for instance and we need to have all hands on deck for inspections which happened this year. Uh our staff have 24 different degrees. We have 43 different certifications and we have 30 committees or community groups that they serve on. And so if you look at the totality of those employees, I would say pretty engaged in what's going on, not only in uh their field of expertise, whether that be building, economic development, housing, city planning, zoning, enforcement, that sort of thing. They're also serving on committees to help the community. Here's our staff. We had a full staff group the day we took this picture. Um, we were What were we doing that day? Oh, I know. We're getting some new software on our computers. So, everybody was uh in the same room for once. We don't get that opportunity very often. So, it was a great day. Um, reflecting back on some of your work in the housing and economic development area, I want to remind you of some of the things that you were able to accomplish in the last year. So, probably the biggest HIA we've ever worked on, which is a housing improvement area, uh, was the Chasewood Gates, uh, or I'm sorry, bills at Chasewood. And I think originally it was in the $12.5 million range, but that the numbers did come down and we were able to do the whole project for 10.8 million. As a reminder, it was 21 buildings, 188 units of housing, and they had lots of um I would say dilapidation on the the buildings and they were in need of updates and their association wasn't able to do all the improvements with the dollars they had in their funds. And so really again, the city is that financing mechanism and we're a conduit uh for that financing to occur for those homeowners to pay the pay the financing back. Obviously, the city is not paying for that, but really good project. They're totally complete. Uh really good end result to that project. Um tax increment financing. Uh as you know, you you have reviewed a few TIFF reports over the year. Um TIFF requests, that sort of thing. I this area I want to highlight some of the pooling money that came into the affordable housing trust fund. So that was 5.2 2 million. The council just solidified that. Was it I think it was two meetings ago. And so we were able to put more money in the uh housing trust fund and I think that sits are we at 7 million in the fund today? And so that is an amazing uh fund balance for that housing work and we continue to find ways to spend a lot of it and uh projects keep coming forward and we will continue to show those to you as we go along. And as you recall probably earlier in 25 we also did the commercial market analysis and so that was something we shared with you. The other thing [clears throat] that are work that's worked on a lot with the department is um grant funding and grant applications and many of the people that are sitting here tonight are the people that are doing the work. Uh so the local housing trust fund grant that was to support a transitional unit. If you recall, the veil had that one unit where housing um people who are in need of housing through his house, which is our homelessness intervention company. Um they can use this as a way to house those folks. So that was a great uh funding to get for that program. Then uh there was a Habitat affordable home ownership grant. We're hoping um that was 420,000 there. We're hoping that project gets off the ground this spring, so in a more uh uh meaningful way. There was some fencing put up and different things last year, but uh didn't quite get to the construction phase. So, we're hoping that happens this spring. And then pretty often we're dealing with uh grants for homes within reach, and it's really to support their work in the affordable housing area. Now, to an area you don't see necessarily all the time. Uh these are some of the planning projects that come through the city. Uh I think we were at 84 85 uh cases last year. These are people who are asking for special permissions for various things. So like for instance this one was [cough] sorry [clears throat] um for First International Bank on 394. It's actually off the front edge road and they actually are doing quite a facelift and quite an investment into this building. I think you hear a lot about vacancy and office building issues and that sort of thing. This is a really good example of a reuse of an office building. And so they were able to do uh a bank and a remodel and um there's actually even a drive-thru included in their plans. So that was a a really good project to review. Marsh run 3, that's uh something you did look at and uh it's coming to fruition. They're actually applying for demolition of the existing building. So, this is off of Weisetta Boulevard, just east of the veil, west of the Burke, just the last kind of piece that they were going to redevelop. Um, so probably demolition permits in the next couple of weeks. Some outreach happening with the people who live around there to kind of forecast what the construction is going to look like. And so, that project is going to be built. 44 units there. I think what was this the affordable housing >> four >> four okay so there are four units of affordable housing in there um this is another and I don't think we haven't showed this to you before but this is about some of the marketing that we're doing so it's kind of planning but it's also economic development where we have this kind of synergy between the different departments about what information we're providing so what happens notoriously when a property like this property. This is the R&D facility near Cargill that is on the market currently. And so we get calls every day about wanting to develop the property. And so instead of having, you know, emails here and emails there, we just make a web page for the project and then we tell them all of the different requirements of the city. So here's your procedural steps. Here are the rules about tree preservation. Here's the rules about wetland conservation. All of the things that they need to know as a developer that they're able to find on one uh website. Yeah. Anything to add, Alicia? >> I was just going to add that we also put a lot of the various studies that we've done like the commercial market analysis, our housing studies, and those types of resources that are really difficult to email because they're hundreds of pages long. So, >> they're too large. >> Yeah. It's a great um resource and it's all in one place. So, it's been a really cool tool to be able to develop these sites. >> Yeah. And it's really easy for the developer to get at. And then also um it doesn't matter like if Alicia is meeting alone or I'm meeting alone or we have a group of people who maybe don't have everything at their fingertips. We just press this website and everything kind of is right there. We actually have this for any office that is on the market. We have about five of these pages out there right now where we have really detailed information and um data that they can access really easily. So, we're really excited about um providing a little bit more support than probably we normally would do on a development site. You want to add something? Yeah. I think also it's kind of cool because the brokers have and bankers and everyone else has been sharing it amongst themselves so they're getting the information out. >> Yeah. And that they're all getting the same data cuz that it's kind of like sometimes it's a game of telephone a little bit and um you probably know this Commissioner Anderson. Um the it's like well so and so said this and then so and so said that and like here here's the city's website and this is what was really said. So I think that's a a little bit more consistent information source as well. So then uh love this picture of the sustainability awards. You know our department is involved in the sustainability aspect. I would say our staff supports a very active commission because that commission goes out and they're ambassadors to a lot of different things in the community and you'll see them everywhere. Right. If we're having an event, they're there. And this is just a picture of all the award winners uh from last year. Um this next week we'll look at the award applications um for this 2026 season. So we're excited. I think there I just looked at before I came in here. I think there were 18 applications. So we're excited to have that. And of course, the idea is you have these awards that show really great work of residents, businesses, and youth that um lift up their projects to hopefully explain to other people how to be um better at conservation in whatever realm, whether it be solar or waste or uh you know, construction, etc. So, these are the last winners. We'll replace this picture when we get a new one for 2026. and really excited about that um award project. Here is an example of some outreach that was done by sustainability. So there was um and this is kind of where uh Kirstston's work with economic development and businesses and then the sustainability folks came together and they had a session at the Weisetta chamber to help understand better for businesses what tools and access to programs could they use for their businesses. And in fact, one of the businesses shared their um experience in some of these programs and it was a really great gathering of folks to brainstorm about how they could be more energy efficient and take advantage of some of the programs that are available. So, uh this is a really uptick. So, one of the things we offer and I asked this at the last I think I asked at planning commission how many have taken advantage of the city's home energy squad visit program? Oh, I got one taker. Thank you. And oh, we got another taker. I'm a taker. Um, but what did you find most helpful about your visit, your energy squad visit? >> Yeah, they came out to the house. Um, what's most helpful is they basically replace anything that needs to be replaced that they can replace. So, all your light bulbs, like they insulated some of my door frames, >> they do it all weatherproofing. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. So, they just do everything and then they leave you with like a a list of very actionable to-dos. >> Yeah. So, the it's a to-do list. They'll do some things and then they'll leave uh with leave you with a bunch of projects that you can do as well. So, really what was interesting, we had 54 visits a month last year and that's a huge uptick in what we were doing in years previously. So really having a good response to and and that's to credit the sustainability commission and their outreach as well as um Ally in our office is constantly putting things on social media trying to get people excited. There's Ally and some of the commissioners and having a good time. Let's see. I think they're at the winter farmers market here. So really having a good um outreach event. Then we also do health. So, if you don't know, our department is responsible for the general public health of the city. And that can involve a lot of things. Think about swimming at the beach. Someone's testing, sampling. Think about where you're eating food in the community. Someone's going out and making sure the temperatures are right and storage is happening. And I I give those examples because they're the most um tangible, but there's a lot of other areas that um are dealt with by public health. And so we did last uh the for the last 5 years we've had an average of about 531 inspections. Um [clears throat] we are happy to report though that in uh 2025 we had 23 uh foodborne illness but you know we're coming down off some higher years there. This one has to do with food related complaints and then there's food born illness complaints and then the last one is pools and beaches. So we don't get too many pools and beach complaints but definitely in the foodborne illness and then food related we still have to investigate a fair amount of uh requests in nuisances I I don't like to use this number this is a high number for nuisances 2465 complaints since 2021 we had did have to deal with 10 citations in that time period and then we did 50 abatements so when I say abatements. That means let's say we have somebody who can't is not able to take care of their property for whatever reason. Um maybe they're disabled, maybe they've had a life event that prevents them from taking care of their property. The city is called, we step in, and then we'll make an agreement with the property owner to clean up whatever is um difficult or um causing issues in the neighborhood. and then we're able to collect the money needed uh to pay back the city and we do that through taxes and we do that fairly often. Um it isn't unusual to do that and uh we do that so that one the homeowner can keep the pride of their home uh but also not bother other neighbors or people who maybe are filing the complaint. It's important that you know that the city actually doesn't look for complaints. So there is a city council policy about how the city does enforcement and we wait for the complaint and there are some rules about complaintants. You can't be anonymous. That sort of thing. Now the data that somebody can complain is protected. So let's say one of the commissioners called me and complained about their neighbor. Your your name is actually protected unless there's a court action against the property owner. And so that can come out later, but initially it's a private matter uh that your complaint is filed. Moving on to building. So we've had some really amazing building numbers. I when I saw the number, it's a little over 300 million for last year in total construction. Uh a good year for Minnetonka, I always say is in the 200s. Uh 225 feels pretty healthy to me. Um but when we get up into the 300s we're looking at some pretty high value and uh that was a good year despite you know having a lot of office vacancy there al also was a lot of turnover in office space and that's where some of this number is coming from and so very healthy 10,000 permits issued highest in the seven years um that we've had. So again, lots of activity. Some of that has to do with that roof thing I mentioned before. [laughter] I think we had I can't remember how many permits we had. 1,200 maybe were roofs. So it was a very high number. But look what's happening in the residential market here. So you had 3,100 permits filed for reinvestment. So people are doing something in their home. They're adding on. They're adding a garage. are doing something. Um, but this is ticking way up. We thought we were busy during um, COVID years because everybody was at home and doing their permitting. And so this 2500 was um, a pretty high number for us historically. But this has really really gotten to be a high number. And so we watch that because we want to watch people whether or not they're investing or disinvesting in their houses, right? So, you kind of go back to the nuisance number and you these are all the things we pay attention to. If the nuisance numbers are high and no one's investing their home, then you kind of have to rethink about what your strategies are. Um, the investment in terms of permit value, $75 million were was spent in in those reinvestments. So, of that 300 million, that's 75 of it was residentially related. Um, the average residential reinvestment per year if you did the average is about 64 million. I always provide the new home permit totals although it doesn't really matter too much to the overall construction because we don't build that many new single uh unit houses. So in this uh chart you can see on the left it is from 21 to 25. So we average, you know, 35 40 in in the year 2022, but this past year it was 36 homes. And the places you think about that are estates that have been redeveloped. So on Plymouth Road, there's a project off to the east and then there's one off to the west as you go north toward Ridgedale and those are where those new permits are getting issued. There's another development way out on uh the west side of town on Ridgewood and so there's homes going in there as well. Permit values though very high. Um that doesn't seem to change a whole lot it in terms of the last 3 years. Uh we've seen some fluctuation obviously after 2022 those numbers just really really jumped. um price of construction has jumped. So that part isn't a surprise. But uh remember this does not include the property itself. So these are only construction permitting values. And so that part is a little disturbing, but again it's not a big part of our our market. Um the average new home construction size is 5,125 square ft. So not small homes indicating you know why that price is where it is. Moving into licensing. So if you don't know we do manage all the licensing for the city. So we do on and off sale. We do food lodging. We do solicitors which this year with that roofing incident caused a whole lot of soliciting going on in the community. And if you don't know we do track everyone who has a permit in the city. we do a background check etc. And so there's lots of um paperwork that goes along with that. Um average facilities licensed and in the last four years 5 years 614 uh facilities and then here is the type of licensing. And so you have contractor licensing, you have business licenses, and then you have liquor licenses. And so you might ask why is it 549 and then it drops to 435? We do have some HVAC licenses that go for three years. So, you won't see them back in the queue again for another year. So, that's why you see it here and then you don't see it again till here. So, three-year licensing makes that um makes that number look like it does. This is so fun. I love this picture. Um it's of our tour last year. You might recognize some faces in there, right? And so, uh, this is just to kind of recap where we are. Administratively, we issue about 63 packets, um, per week or overall. And so, that's more than one a week. We always say we work in a deadline mode, right? We're always in the newspaper business. Get that packet out the door. So, if you ever notice any typos, I'm sorry cuz maybe we just lost uh lost our momentum in that particular week. We wrote over 200 reports in the last year as well that were either reviewed by you, the council, sustainability planning commission, um what have you and study session, forgot about that, study sessions, too. And so, um that's where we ended the year. So, anyway, with that, um that's my report on activities of the whole community development department. I'd welcome any questions that you might have and I'll stand for that. Thank you. Wonderful. Any questions? >> Uh, chair, I just want to comment. Uh, you know, I loved the comment about the, uh, the point about how many committee and community groups that the staff are, uh, a part of and, um, but and just a fantastic uh, staff and team here. I didn't know all that encompassed uh the work that you do the full scope. So that was really helpful and um I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. I'd echo just the comments. The story map was very cool and laid out well. Those are cool ArcJS tools. So happy to see that. >> Easier than a PDF, right? >> It's easier than a website as well. So very good um tool. And just as I look back at, you know, my time, I think I'm coming off on my eighth year, just truly the impact of just the physical representation of the homes, the units, the businesses. It's just been tremendous progress and just even in the last year. So wonderful. There questions. >> Oh, I just had a comment. Um, I was very um apprec appreciative of of the the completion of the villas at Chasewood Housing Improvement Area project. Um, and also that it incurred lower than anticipated costs, so we didn't have to go into that $1.5 million budgeted contingency. Um, so, yay. [laughter] >> One question as well. Um, Miss Wishnack, do you remember what the origin of the Chasewood uh funding was? Like, did they come to us? Did we proactively know just cuz that's the type of thing that we want to organically seed as much as possible? >> Obviously, it happened. Um, what was the story >> sometimes? Thank you, Chair, if I may. Uh, Commissioner Heg, the uh the way we usually get in touch with these folks is there's some kind of huge pending issue, right? and they're usually brainstorming and their management company or someone in management understands that the city has this financing and they bring it up to them. Then typically Alicia, I or a combination of staff will go and meet with the homeowners association to give them a an education about what it is and how it works because I think sometimes I it's confusing, right? Like why is the city here? why are you why are you doing the financing? Why don't we just do it ourselves? Why can't we ask for a bank to do it? You know, there's all these questions that homeowners have. And so that's kind of how every conversation starts. We do um anytime we hear from a homeowners association, say they call Kendall and they ask a question like, "We're really having a hard time with our road and our fees are getting getting too high." and then we might do the the education at that point and try to get into a conversation with them. Um they're not easy to do, especially when this large. Um think about all of the back and forth you have and and we like them to go to their HOA, but because they see city on there, they'll call us about I don't know, Kendall, like rebates on windows and they'll call us on, you know, just various things where you're like, well, we're just tax advice. We had that this last week. Um, and it's really the HOA who's their go-to people, but then it ends up in our lap, but that's okay. I mean, we can spend time educating and that we that's our job. And so, we're happy to do that. We think there are, what was our number on total? Is it 85 town home and condo complexes in the city? And so if you take down the 85 number and then you go, well, how many of those probably are in this situation? Probably 25, I'm guessing, are in a situation like this. How many have we helped? Four. >> Three. >> Three. So we've helped three situations like this. So there's more work to do for sure. So hopefully that answered your question. >> Great discussion. Any other comments? >> No. Okay, wonderful. I think we'll move to Thank you. Then we'll move to the Oh, a couple of other updates then to share. Oh, we'll move right into the staff updates on our um our staff report. So, I wanted to do a quick um just update on some of the things that we're doing around um impacts due to operation metro surge. So, we do have um just starting out, we have a page on our website that has a compilation of the various resources for folks who may be impacted. So, that's what that looks like there. It's it's on our um homepage. You can get to that. Um, more specifically, we've a few of us have been meeting with on weekly calls with Henipin County um and other staff from other communities to talk about the various resources that are available. So, um those meetings have been taking place um led by our DEI uh person chase. The um groups that have been most involved have been the local school districts, the regional nonprofits, the religious institutions, and then as I mentioned, Henman County and the cities. And through those various meetings, we share the resources that are available not only to businesses, but to our residents um and communicate out through various channels, all trying to track all these different resources that are out there. Um so specifically on the emergency rental assistance side, we've been mainly directing folks to Henipin County. Um we have a partnership with a maton and our Minnotonka funds that um funnel through his house foundation. Um so specifically Henipin County, the main landing point there is rent help rent help Henipin. Um and then they also have their own response page as well. CAPHC is another resource that is providing rental assistance. AA and then Minnotonka as I mentioned and next week I believe on the council agenda, not next week, a week from Monday, there will be an additional action to add some rental assistance funding and um homelessness being brought to the council for consideration. um I think it's a h 100,000 for rental assistance and 50,000 for homelessness assistance and uh that'll supplement we have some existing funds in there already but just to make sure that we have funding available for people when they need it. Um there's also just a lot of local nonprofits um collecting funding and various resources to share out in the community. um some of those donations um specifically are being used for rent assistance for um undocumented folks and that's a great need because the city programming cannot provide um rental assistance for that purpose. So they're kind of offsetting the other funding source so they can provide that resource as needed. So there's um places like Stand with Minnesota, the Women's Foundation, um the South Lake Housing Relief Effort, and then the Open Your Heart Emergency Rent Relief Fund are all um doing separate fundraising for those efforts. Um on the business side, Elevate Henipin is really coordinating all the various resources um through their online platform. Um, as of just about 3:00 today, they announced their new emergency loan. So, that is going to be, I believe it's $3,000 to $10,000 that businesses in Henipin County can apply for, and I think the county put in about $2 million for that. And that'll open up here on the 18th. So, you'll probably see some push messaging from us around that. We also um have our own emergency um loan which was set up just right after COVID to help our businesses that were struggling during that time. So we still have a pretty good balance in there. Um just a little less than probably $45,000 and that's a $2,500 forgivable loan. So that's something else that is available for our businesses and that's available anytime. It's not just now. So, we'll continue to um have that program available moving forward. The salt cure fund um is another one that it's basically for min Minnesota restaurants. Um they went through a first round and I know a second round will be opening soon. Um Minneapolis Foundation is collecting funding for small business relief. On the last call, they had about 3.5 million. And then the Minnesota Promise Act was um money that was a direct impact or directly set up due to um after the murder of George Floyd um to help the businesses that were impact um through that. and they had spent a pretty significant amount of that um funding, but there's a balance of $58 million sitting there and they're trying to figure out how to reorganize the um guidelines so that they could use that now and help the businesses that are suffering. So, that's um more to come on that. I think they're still working through what that looks like. Um, and then we're continuing to have regular check-ins with our construction sites and developers to see if they're um still impacted by um employment shortage shortages. And um we're we've been checking in with our businesses and our um apartment buildings too as to make sure that um they have the resources that they need. All right, with that any questions? It's it's a lot. We realize that everyone's trying to do something and it can cause a little bit of confusion because there's so much out there right now, but we're trying to do our best on that front. Questions or comments from the commission? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, well, you want to >> The only thing I would add is if you know people in need, maybe you're talking to a business, you're talking to a somebody who needs rental assistance, something in that realm, just make sure you put them in touch with us. We'll get them in the right place. So, um, you don't have to you don't have to worry about who you're sending them to. Just send them to city hall and we'll figure it out with them. >> Mhm. >> I'm sorry, you had a comment. No. >> Um, do you want to touch? I just wanted to ask staff um in their discussions, do they feel that the relief programs and there's a whole diversity and wide range of them and all there's chaos involved to because there's so many um but do you feel or have a good grasp as to whether or not this is sufficient a response? Um Chair, Commissioner Connors, we've been hearing that there's been enough funding. We were just on a call today when they were talking about um rental assistance for both sides, either undocumented or um residents of the state of Minnesota. And they're saying that they've been able to meet up meet the need for those that are in need. And whether that's through um various um different agencies collecting the funding or even um private like um religious institutions are collecting their own funds and then they're helping their um members in need. So we're hearing a lot of that as well. and they're doing donations to um I know there's quite a few groups that are driving around and dropping off supplies for folks in need which can run the gamut of formula, diapers, you know, anything that people need. They're really stepping up and and getting the resources out there. >> Mhm. And we're we're getting this from people who are on the street street with people. Um this is not like it's [clears throat] our his house representative who's interacting with um homeless and housing insecure people. So, um I I trust her um gut check on whether or not there's enough services for folks. So, >> great. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Great to hear. >> And you coming >> I feel like I'm on the speaking circuit lately, so my my voice isn't holding up this week. Um, uh, Kendall was able to get a hold of this information, um, because there there is a lot of questions and it was covered on the news last night, I think, about evictions and and whether or not we have a lot of evictions or we don't or what's happening and, you know, people are all over the board as far as information. Well, I encourage you to look at this link because it does give you a bigger picture. This is all of Henipin County and Kendall if you can do 2025 for me just on the left hand side or who whoever's operating us. Okay, you'll drive it. Thank you. So, if you look at last year's um what this does is Henipin County pulls the eviction records from the court cases and then extracts out uh what's happening to the cases. So this shows you how many filings and judgments on the top line of that middle graph, the purple area, how many in every month of 25. So you can kind of see, you know, it it bounces between I would say averaging 800 to 900 uh in Henipin County every month. Okay, so that's not atypical. Um, even if you go back to 2004, um, pretty similar numbers once you hit May of 24. And then if you go to what's happening now, and somebody asked me this on the call today, 2026, if you can go back there, it'll show you kind of up to the minute what's happening with eviction filings. So you can see we have a little bit 164 in March. That's because we're only, you know, 11 days, 12 days into March. So, this is just in time data. It's not like it's um stale information. The other thing that's interesting about this first page is it shows you the eviction by type. So, is it non-payment? Is it failure to vacate? Or were there other issues with their lease? And so, you can see most of uh what was happening in January and February were um payment non-payment of rent issues. Again, keep in mind this is Henipin County W. I'll show you Minnetonka in a minute. Go ahead to the next screen. Okay, so here's where you get more. It'll just take a second to load until we get to Minnotonka. And remember, Minnetonka has a lot of different zip codes. And zip codes doesn't mean city boundary. So, so you also have to kind of keep that in mind when you're looking at this data is where um take a second to populate it. It's a little leggy. Just hold the phone. [laughter] Just one second here. It'll it'll come up in if you press maybe the right hand side. Just a minute. You going to do it? Okay. Kendall's going to do it. >> Got it. >> Oh, there we go. >> And do you have 26? Okay, good. Thank you. I'll try again. >> Thank you. It zoomed in this morning, so I don't know why it's not zooming right now. One second. We'll refresh. No pressure, Kendall. So, the first zip code I usually check is that southeastern area of Minnetonka. And um what was that? >> It doesn't want to load. >> Doesn't want to load. It's not cooperating. But if you get this link and you can do it on your own, what it'll show you is the number of evictions uh filed in the southeast area of the city. And we're not seeing huge numbers. Okay. So maybe 19 in that southeast area. And why did we watch the southeast? That's Opus. That's, you know, new construction, that sort of thing. So you want to watch that. Um the northeast area, the more ridged focused area. I think we saw seven up there in 26. So again, the numbers here in Minnetonka are way different than maybe other parts of the county. That doesn't mean those people don't need help. those people still need to be serviced and hopefully help by uh providing assistance. And yeah, this one is the western part of Minnetonka and so you can see the filings were seven and we actually had only one eviction in that area of the city. So, um, again, we we monitor this data to see how big of an issue it is, but that tells us the same story that we've been hearing from his house, which is not needing a lot of rental assistance because we're not seeing the evictions. Now, that doesn't mean it isn't coming or that we might not see some more. Uh, but for now, things are a little bit more stable than I may be. Maybe other people are sharing stories about other areas of the metro which maybe aren't as stable. So, um, that's good news for people here in Minnetonka. Um, we also check another thing where we check certain land owners in the plaintiff's database. So, we want to look at who's maybe um who's maybe filing more evictions than normal. Um, we look for people who own a lot of units in Minnetonka. We are not finding any specific property and are causing lots of evictions. So maybe you have a I don't know how predatory landlord maybe is a better way to say it. Um if if you had that that would be showing in this data. They would be filing and filing and filing and we just don't see that activity again. And I'm not speaking for the metro. It's just the Minnotonka information that I'm talking about. Um the next slide shows really far back. So you can get a like almost a 25 year history of evictions in general. And that all changed kind of right after CO, right? We had no evictions happening in CO and then this little more steep um incline of evictions. And then the other thing that's interesting and his house talked about this today in their discussion with us is when you have somebody in an eviction situation, say they're they've got the filing and they're going to eviction court. Hopefully none of us have been in this situation, but if you are or you know somebody in this situation, it can be very intimidating. They're going to court. Um his house will actually go with them and they will be kind of their advocate and help them navigate. And on this side, you can see that sometimes um and in 36% of the cases last year, they were able to settle. Um and what happens is his house figures out how to pay their back rent, make a workout agreement with the property owner. Those people are able to live there, and then maybe they need to be relocated to a more affordable living situation. So there are cases and again maybe people just don't understand the process but when they go to court and there's a an attorney that's free to them uh they work out an agreement there is a way for them not to have the eviction on their record and it is expuned afterwards. So um I think people feel like that's the end of the rope like eviction is but there are more resources at that point as well and we have people locally that will help people. So, I only say all of this to help you talk to others and people in your circles about the resources that we have here. I can't remember what's on number five. What's what's the last screen? >> The whole state. >> Oh, the whole state. So, you can compare and contrast on the whole state. Really good information. Um hopefully you find this helpful to kind of hear about evictions. Did I cover everything? Okay. Any questions about evictions or data? Probably more than you wanted to know. [laughter] All right. Thank you for allowing me to share that. >> Thank you. We've been getting a lot of questions, so we feel that we need to get the word out and help you understand what we're hearing. >> Um, so we talked a little bit about all the work that was done in 2025 and now we get to look ahead to 2026. Yay. >> Yeah. [laughter] [clears throat] Okay. So, I wanted to we don't generally cover this, but I thought it might be helpful to just um talk a little bit about how we get to um our priorities for the year. So, um back in 2020, our city council drafted some strategic priorities um to help us guide um our work and keep on track with the things that the council wanted to accomplish. and they put together a set of key strategies and action steps to accomplish those goals. Then in 2024, they affirmed their priorities that they had um developed in 2020, which were financial strength and operational excellence, safe and healthy community, sustainability and natural environment, livable and wellplanned development, which is a lot where a lot of our work lands, infrastructure and asset management, and community inclusiveness. And then each year um they go through a process to determine action steps to meet those goals. So those were approved at the January 12th um 2026 council meeting and those are really the building blocks of a lot of the work that we do um in our um daily workday. Um so along with those action steps, there's also another um set of goals called merit and those are established by each department to kind of go above and beyond um business as usual as usual. So we're just going to talk a little bit about what those items were for um 2026. And sometimes they're a one-year goal and they may other times they may be a multi-year goal. So we'll talk about that a little bit. And some of these also came out of the work of the EIP and various study sessions and um other efforts that we undertake to plan our our year. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kirsten on the business side. Sure. So our goals for 2026 for supporting our business as you can see really revolve around information and data. So how are we sharing the information? We collected a lot of great data last year through our business survey, our commercial market analysis, our transit study. How are we sharing our information and how are we um doing something with it? So, is that the formal data like the examples I just shared or is that information that we're gathering through meeting with businesses and maybe that's us um here in this room or maybe that's other departments who are also meeting with businesses and learning things. So trying to figure out how we can incorporate data that's coming from multiple different directions so that we can um streamline that internally so that we can share data through things like the story maps that obviously we love here. Um and also continuing to strengthen our storytelling to support the great work that our businesses are doing. So that's on social media, through a newsletter, um through a we're going to have a new business video series, um and just strengthening that work. Oh yeah, still me. Okay. Um as for outreach, as Alicia mentioned, um so far this year, it's really been focused on reaching out to our businesses. We've done that through our our eblast, through our emails or our list serve and and tailoring that to specifically to businesses are licensed here. But really at the end of the day, the most effective way has been to do more direct outreach through calling and just showing up at business's doors. Um, and having those conversations on some challenging topics, it can be a lot easier um to have that through a longer form conversation than through sharing links in a lot of ways. So, um, we have a a handful of businesses that are exploring whether or not our emergency business fund would be an appropriate resource for them to use at this time. Um, we are still planning on the events that we had planned to do in 2025. Originally, I'd been thinking that we'd do another Thriving Thursday alongside Henipin County in the spring. That's probably going to be a longer timeline now because as you heard a lot of the work that we're focusing on with the county right now has been around Operation Metro Surge, but we're still planning on doing those things. Um, our last issue of Thrive went out in February and our next one will be in June. So, as always, I'm always looking for good stories about our amazing business community here. Uh, looking at the housing action steps and merit goals for 26. Um the the first one we've already we're working on it now. Um that the first item was to present the homes within reach program to the city council. Um you guys all saw that before it went to council um at the end of last year. So um we presented that program to the city council on February 23rd of this year. Um and so we are now working um it was approved and so we're now working towards putting that together and getting um all the application and information put together. so that can get started this year. [snorts] Um some other items um really focusing on on looking um at creating a plan for expiring affordable housing. So um there's indexed units is what we call them um that are contracted affordable um units um through covenants on properties. And so that is something that we have uh one complex that has hit its 30 years this year. And so um we are working on identifying and creating a plan. So that is part of our goal this year to figure out how to do that. Um in addition looking at different types of housings. We mentioned before manufactured home pre uh fab homes. So we're talking through that and looking at different options. Um and then generally looking at eval evaluating all of our city programs that provide funding for um affordable renter and owner products um in the city and seeing how effective they are and just um doing some evaluation of that this year. Um and then looking at doing a digital aid to help um provide information regarding HIA's special assessment project. So, this would be something that would be easily accessible to anybody with all the information. Um, of course, people can still call us, but we want to be able to have something um that's easily read. Um, so I think we're working with our some our assessing team here at the city to to put something together. So, that'll be a project this year. And then the last thing here is to organize a large multi-unit property management meeting. So, um working on our communication with our management and having a meeting with as many property managers as we can um to provide information to get um just to connect with them. We haven't done a meeting um for a while with management um in a big group format. So, um I think it'll be good to to see if we can get something done this year. Um just some general housing updates. um rental registration still going strong. We get new uh registrations every year. Um we're working to get those who maybe haven't done their renewals yet um who are now would be considered out of compliance because they haven't done their annual renewal, trying to get those into compliance. Um and of uh short-term rentals is also a topic that we have been discussing at the last um city council study session. uh there was a discussion about short-term rentals and so staff was directed um to uh look into writing an ordinance um and so we are working towards that um right now um looking into homelessness uh we talked a little bit about um this already but just generally there the program is going strong as Alicia said both the homelessness response program and the emergency rental assistance is administered by his house foundation and uh staff is proposing additional funding for both um uh in a couple weeks here. Um the encampment policy uh staff will be bringing that policy to council early in 2026. So we're working on getting that the draft finalized to bring to council. Um and already mentioned the local housing trust fund grant for the veil um apartment for the transitional unit. Let's see. And then just you've seen this slide before mostly, but um just a look at the pathways to home ownership program. Uh it continues uh to be well used. Um there was 175,000 uh budgeted um in the H levy for 2026 and uh at the last council meeting uh on Monday that was um approved to be transferred to the affordable housing trust fund and to be used um by the center for energy and environment. So that money will be now able to be used. Um and just some key demographics for 2025. Um with the, you know, average income of borrowers being around 93,000, 10 households identified as white, two, uh black or African-American, and one did not provide information. Um so yeah, we had 13 loans completed. So that was more than the year before. So um a good trajectory. Before we go into the other updates, I wanted to mention a few other priorities that we have this year that fall more into the infrastructure area. So, um, we continue to focus a lot on the Opus area and implementing the wayfinding and lighting projects in Opus. Um we're still working towards the open public space near light rail and then also um looking at other infrastructure needs prior to opening day on LRT which is coming up in 2027, believe it or not. >> Less than a year. >> Less than a year. >> Yeah. [laughter] [gasps] [clears throat] >> Before we move on, were there questions chair? Sorry. on the housing or business side or questions, commissioners? Okay. No. Okay. Then we'll continue with the other updates. Um so the Roland Road project um it's actually not city owned anymore. It's uh >> not city owned. >> No, it was city owned. Now Amani owns it. [clears throat] Really good um construction progress on their twin home. So, if you haven't been by that area, it's it's looking really good. Uh, Greco up on Wet Boulevard, just south of the highway. Um, really far under construction. So happy with the progress there as well. We talked about Mills already. And then Greyar or Marlo or what is it today? What's the name? >> I think the new name, the final name hopefully is the Bellamy. >> The Bellamy. Yeah. So, I don't know. This This is how projects go. You know, they have three different names that usually happen. So that one is if you are in Opus and you're near Elcott, it's the one just more toward the station if you can go with me in my geography map that I'm giving you in my head. Um Amira Villas, that's totally constructed in terms of they pulled their last permit. So they're all done in terms of um permitting and I think there's just some final touches on some of the buildings that they're working on. Marshon 13, we already talked about Henipin County Government Center. There's still some work going on there. Habad has some landscaping they'll finish in the spring here. Oh, um, former Opus building, if I haven't talked about that before, there, if you know where that is, it's kind of just kitty corner from where the light rail station is in Opus, so kind of in that center area. Their headquarters for Opus Corporate is in that building. And then they had digital river off to the north in that other kind of addition. Um what they're proposing to do and they uh were in introduced at the council two weeks ago. They would take off that northern building and remove the kind of link to that building and then subdivide the two properties and then try to sell off that northern piece of property. um they're, you know, sharing that it's just too difficult to find another user for the building and won't be able to um you know, have a new office user in there. So, I think they're looking for uh an easier way to market the property. So, that is under review at the moment. And then, uh Walls Kia, they're done. They do have a temporary co for a couple of finished items. And then if you haven't been to Wells Fargo area lately, that's looking pretty decent in terms of um the construction side of things. And then Marshalls, if you don't remember, that's moving into the old um Thank you, Barnes & Noble. Um did I forget any projects that are under construction? I think that's it. Yep. Thank you for the >> time to update you on development. Do you want me to do this, too? >> Go ahead. [clears throat] >> I don't know. My voice might >> Maybe we'll just do >> I'll just do the 26. So, we're uh we did do an update to the council on March 2nd and we just talked about kind of where we're headed for the year and definitely the the consultants are in writing mode right now because they keep sending us like 100page documents. So, I we haven't really looked at uh the changes in detail, but uh we'll be doing that over the next month. And then uh we'll have our committee look at it. And then you should expect during the summer months to have more engagement with the public about what it says, what it does. Um and I'll need your help to kind of get the word out to share with people if there are concerns or things that they want to ask questions about that they engage with us about that. So we'll provide opportunities, information, and education about that. We already mentioned this, but the project is 94% complete, [laughter] opening soon. Uh there is a fun event coming up though. It's bike to work month on May 9th. It's a Saturday. They're doing a trail reopening and I know Kirsten's been working on exactly where um folks are going to meet up and then ride all the way down to downtown and back. So, it's quite the adventure. Yeah, I think um well, all the cities on the line are being invited. So, we'll send out we'll send out an invite to all boards and commissions so that you know when it is and what time to be there. >> So, also you need to work up to being able to bike all the way down. >> It's not that far. It's [laughter] not that far. >> We're coming out of winter. >> Yeah, that's true. That's true. Get on your stationary bikes right now. [laughter] >> Excellent. >> And then just a couple upcoming events. Our next meeting is scheduled for April 23rd. The boards and commissions dinner is with they have to RSVP for that. That's coming up April 22nd and then July 3rd is the big tour in the summer. It's a little bit earlier this year cuz usually it's later in the fall, but >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We want to make sure you have daylight. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Yep. All right. With that, any questions? >> Questions, commissioners, comments? Yes. Just want to make a comment. Uh, you know, heard a lot about some of the nonprofits and in the community and and working in the nonprofit sector. I think it's a good moment in time to uh just say, you know, and and I know the mayor at the state of the city address highlighted nonprofits in the community. All nonprofits are, you know, uh, in need of support and especially those, uh, who are doing really good emergency work right now. But uh you know the nonprofit sector has had multiple hits um and in the last several years and you know s sectorwide um they they need our support and um they're doing such amazing work in our community and uh I just want to uh for anybody who's watching this in the in the city uh please uh this is a good time to give to our nonprofits. Thank you. It's a wonderful call to action, Commissioner Anderson. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? No. Okay. Do I see a motion to adjurnn? Yes. Motion. Second. Okay. Ajourn. Thank you. >> [music]